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Saturday, July 22, 2017

The Day Britain Never Surrendered

Christopher Nolan's 2017 film "Dunkirk"

While I was watching Dunkirk with Anthony, Paul, Matt, Bart and Jeff, the word that kept
coming to mind was “tight.”

Director Christopher Nolan focuses tightly on the
common-man Brits trapped and struggling in this World War II drama, putting you
right INTO the cockpit of the Spitty,
below decks on the sinking ship and aboard the small civilian craft crossing
the English Channel to save the trapped troops. The storytelling is also tight,
beginning at almost the end of the story with the despairing, defeated soldiers
being machine-gunned and bombed, moving with unrelenting suspense for a brisk
107 minutes.

By the end of the eighth day, 338,226 soldiers had
been rescued by a quickly assembled fleet of over 800 boats, many of them Thames
vessels, car ferries, pleasure craft, speedboats and other small civilian boats.
This film’s tight focus puts that extraordinary historic effort into personal,
human terms while never stinting on the adventure.

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About Dan Hagen

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Why Odin's ravens?

Perched on the shoulders of the Norse god Odin are the pet ravens Huginn and Muninn, whose names mean “Thought” and “Memory.” At Odin’s bidding, they fly across the face of the world and bring him knowledge. In the 13th century Poetic Edda, Odin reveals that he fears that they may not return from their daily flights. He has pampered his pets by rewarding them with the ability to speak, and it’s truth that they tell, even though the Raven is, of course, a Trickster.

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Copyright

I love crows and ravens for their wisecracking voices and for that black-on-black gleam of sagacity in their eyes. They figure things out. They see us. They know us for what we are, which is why they keep a wary distance but remind us, with their taunts, that they are not overly impressed.